1. Maternal Anxiety and Child Startle Reactivity: The Impact of Maternal Anxiety on Child Skin Conductance Responses Cindy Flores, 1,2 Aisha Ali, 1,2 Andrea Garcia, 1 Jenny Porter, 1 Jessica Buthmann, 1 Jackie Finik, 1 Yoko Nomura Ph.D 1,3 1 Department of Psychology, Queens College, City University of New York, 65-30 Kissena Blvd., Flushing NY 11367 2 Macaulay Honors College, 35 W 67 th St. New York, NY 10023 3 Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, 10029 Maternal Groups Background: Previous studies have demonstrated that individuals prone to anxiety exhibit prolonged psychophysiological activity during startle probe tasks. 1 Several studies have focused on the impact of anxiety on psychophysiological responses. However few studies have focused on the transmission of anxiety related symptoms from mother to child. Depression ty Measures: 151 pregnant women (n=151) who received prenatal care at the New York- Presbyterian/Queens or Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City were recruited to participate in a longitudinal study of pregnancy (P.I. Yoko Nomura). Participants were administered the Semi Structured Clinical Interview (SCID) during their third trimester and the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) at follow-up (18-60 months post-partum) to assess history of anxiety. Mean SCR magnitude was used as a measurement of the average electro-dermal response to a physiologically arousing stimulus Skin conductance magnitude was measured during an auditory startle probe task comprised of six 90 dB auditory stimuli. Objective: To examine the impact of maternal anxiety on child skin conductance magnitude. It was hypothesized that children of mothers with a history of anxiety would exhibit a greater mean SCR in response to a startle-probe stimulus as opposed to children of mothers without a history of anxiety. Method: Participants were administered The Structural Clinical Interview 4 (SCID-DSMIV) during their 2 nd trimester and Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview 5 (MINI-DSMIV) at follow-up to measure the presence of history of maternal anxiety disorder. Child skin conductance responses (SCRs) were obtained from an auditory startle-probe task conducted at follow-up with offspring (18-60 months post-partum) Results: Our findings showed a significantly lower mean SCR magnitude between the offspring of mothers with a history of anxiety as compared to those without. Offspring born to mothers with a history of anxiety had significantly lower mean skin conductance magnitudes (p=0.035). Conclusion: Our results indicate a significant relationship between the presence of maternal anxiety and child psychophysiological reactivity. Data Analysis: the impact of maternal anxiety on mean skin conductance magnitude was tested using a linear regression analysis, adjusted for child age at follow-up. Results: Offspring born to women with a history of anxiety had a mean skin conductance magnitude that was significantly lower than children of women without a history of anxiety (p=0.035). Aim & Background Results. Maternal Anxiety SCR Contrary to our initial hypothesis, presence of maternal anxiety was related to a significantly smaller mean SCR magnitude in offspring of mothers with a history of anxiety as opposed to those without. This can be attributed to both biological and environmental factors. Studies have shown that those with a genetic predisposition to anxiety have lower activity in the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenocortical axis than those not prone to anxiety. Therefore, it may be possible that children of mothers with a history of anxiety secrete the stress hormones adrenocorticotropin and corticosterone to a lower extent when exposed to a stressor. 2 Individuals with anxiety have been shown to experience high levels of perceived responsibility which may extend to parental responsibilities. Furthermore, anxious mothers have been shown to view their child’s environment according to their negative perspective of the world. 3 Thus, post- partum, mothers with anxiety may allow her symptoms to influence child-rearing decisions. This may promote greater feelings of protectiveness and attentiveness towards their children. A greater degree of maternal protection and attention during the startle-probe task may soothe the child and thus, may account for the smaller mean SCR magnitude seen in children of mothers with a history of anxiety These findings suggest that children of mothers with anxiety may possess superior emotional regulation skills or receive more emotional support from their mothers during the task. Future research into this complex relationship is necessary to help elucidate the underlying biological and environmental factors that impact child emotion regulation. DiscussionMeasures References Abstract 1.Campbell, M.L., Gorka, S.M., McGowan, S.K., Nelson, B.D., Sarapas, C., Katz, A.C., Robison-Andrew, E.J., and Shankman, S.A. (2014). Does anxiety sensitivity correlate with startle habituation? An examination in two independent samples, Cognition and Emotion, 28(1), 46-58. 2.Frank, E., Salchner, P., Aldag, J.M., Salomé, N., Singewald, N., Landgraf, R. and Wigger, A. (2006). 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